Title: Lepakkopoika [Bat Boy]

☺The student’s conclusion: Expands traditional gender norms

The main character of the book is a 6 year-old boy called Ilmari. We learn that he is a perfectly normal boy attending kindergarten. In the book he is described as small and lonely, and on the first page we find him lying in a large armchair. Ilmari is clearly not a happy little boy; he feels lonely and abandoned as the first-born child, as the family also consists of a little sister and a pair of twins who need constant care and attention.

Ilmari is an active child. He has created a secret identity as “Bat Boy”, a violent and dangerous figure who consistently teases his little sister, breaks things in the house and is generally naughty. In the pictures, Bat Boy looks positively unhappy. He does not eat or sleep, does not smile and never tries to contact other people. One picture is particularly touching, as Bat Boy has disappeared from the picture while the rest of the family stand in the hallway getting dressed to go out. Bat Boy is a depressed and anxious little boy.

The parents’ duties break with traditional gender roles. Father looks after the children and the home, whilst mother is only referred to as working. Father takes Ilmari to kindergarten, cooks and dresses the younger children. This is a clear proclamation for fathers who stay at home! The kindergarten personnel are all men. The kindergarten seems like a prison to Bat Boy, with bars on the windows and staff who look like evil wardens, but who are nevertheless male figures. There are no adult females referred to in the book.
Bat Boy meets a friend, a girl of the same age and who has also created a secret identity as a super hero. She is not described as being pleasant and good-natured, but neither is she girl-like. She is recognisable as a girl because of her facial features and slightly longer hair. The book’s message is that boys and girls can be friends and that girls can also be super heroes! In the first picture showing the girl, she has climbed a tree whilst her father or some other figure of authority in her life appears to be sitting at its foot. The inference is that super heroines do not play with dolls and behave nicely, but do climb trees!

I think that the author has deliberately tried to break the accepted gender roles in that the girl’s guardian is also a man. Why should a man not be the primary carer for a child?
Bat Boy and the super heroine girl become friends and are able to forget their violent secret identities, and simply be happy playing together. In the last picture, there was some reassurance when the boy’s father gave his attention to Ilmari and had lifted him on to his shoulders whilst the twins played together nearby.